Today is Saturday, October 1st

This is the beginning of a great day and a new year for the McAnellis!!  October has been the bane of our existence for a long time but not 18 years ago and not today!!!!  So, I'm beating around the bush as I tend to do...  Yesterday, Friday, September 30th was a very long but oh so amazing day at Stanford... as we waited and waited and waited to see Bruno, we learned that there had been an emergency so, Bruno was covering both his and another Doctor's clinics.  When Bruno appeared, he came alone.  No resident or Fellow preceded him.  My anxiety peaked as Bruno strode through the door and greeted us both with a handshake and a grin.  He proceeded to tell us that he was very happy.  As he turned the computer monitor towards us, he asked us to read a few lines on the screen:  Tracy's bone marrow was CLEAR of leukemia cells!!!!!  After all this time,  over 3.5 months of no treatments,  Tracy remains in REMISSION!!!  OMG!!!

I realized I had been holding my breath and I finally gasped for air and peace....  Tracy and I tried to grasp what that meant as Bruno continued.  He reaffirmed that since Tracy had had a very hard time with chemo;  they were still searching for the reasons and ordered another test to determine whether Tracy was lacking a particular enzyme.  That would help in figuring out the next phase of treatments.  Bruno also reiterated that the fact that it had taken so long for T to recover... for his bone marrow to resume normalcy ( his white cell count was 3.5 today & normal is 4-11) that their hope is that the leukemia cells have also been affected and thwarted.  Only time will tell.

Bruno presented a plan.  Rather than try to administer 2 more cycles of chemo per the protocol;  Tracy would start the maintenance phase.  This is chemo light:  Vincristine by IV and 5 days of steroids.  Lab check in 2 weeks at Stanford and return to consult with Bruno at the end of the month.  Monitoring how Tracy reacts to the chemo and gradually, adding in 3 other chemo treatments mostly orally for the next 14 months will allow our man to beat this f__king disease.  I can't tell you how emotionally charged I feel but I can tell you the relief is palpable.  As Tracy said to Riley last night "Now I know I'm going to outlive you, my boy".    Oh what a relief it is....  I thank you, my dear God!!!

As you can imagine, we were both a little giddy as we left the clinic.  Tracy was to have his labs done prior to the chemo infusion and I was heading out to move my car; when I was flagged down by the Concierge, Holly.  She smiled and said, she hadn't seen us in quite some time. And as her eyebrows raised she asked "and how is?"  as I pointed to T where he stood at the elevator door.  T turned towards us and Holly gasped, "OMG, he looks wonderful!!!"  T approached and we all embraced.  Holly said "I've got goose pimples", as her eyes watered.  It truly is amazing to see this man now after the worst year of our lives!  Tracy has survived and is flourishing.  Tracy is a testament to his will to survive and an unwavering spirit.   14 months from now is Christmas.  Oh what a wonderful Christmas it will be...

Chris infusing T with Vincristine

Our Mr. T

As my bro said "We received two miracles today. "  Johnny's biopsy was clear!  We dodged two huge ugly bullets today.  The Lord is with us.  Now let us pray and thank God and pay it forward....